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09 August 2012

Did that Middle Initial Become a Prefix?

It took me awhile to find this marriage record in Ancestry.com's database of Missouri marriages.

The reason was that Harrison M. Kilgore became Harrison M. McKilgore. I'm not certain why they used the "M" twice--but it is easy to see how a fancy "M" as a middle initial, written closely to the last name, can be interpreted as a "Mc."

5 comments:

Ah, yes! One of my favorite indexing errors! I found Thomas P. Dendy lurking in the P's one day, in an Alabama deed index, masquerading as Tom Pedendy. And then there's the Louisiana Spaniard Adout Basco who's hiding in the T's in a census index: Adow Tobasco. (Well, after all, Louisiana's known for Tobasco sauce, right?) Even sneakier was the SC county clerk who indexed my Abraham Odam in the D's. Abraham O. Dam. That's what I said, too, when I eventually found him.

Now I know why I'm so confused to why I can not find my own father in the census, in the 1920's or 1930's or now the 1940 census's as the last name is Cannaday and now I, got to remember to spell with other alphabet's too, Like in K or lord knows what !! Thank you

One of our ancestors was named John Stephen Wrba...then written John St. Wrba and, then John St. Wrba and afterwardsit was St. Wrba for members of the next generation. It was very confushing for us researching to be looking for "S" St.Wrba when we should have been looking for "W" Wrba. It has been fun straightening them all out.

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